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Fontlab, ttf/otf and ligatures
Posted by new_to_typo in
26 Feb 2005 — 7:47am
26 Feb 2005 — 7:47am
Hi all,
I am creating a font with fontlab 4.6 that uses non-standard (custom) ligatures.
Everything seems ok when compiling the font and testinf it in the preview pane.
nb: I entered the ligatures by first drawing the glyphs and assigning names to them, then, I entered a feature liga { sub b a by ba; } liga.
where "ba" is a custom caracter.
The thing is, although it compiles and is working perfectly in the preview pane, the ttf or otf fontlab generates from it seems unaware of the ligatures...
Is there anything I could do about it (I think there is... but what is it?)?
thanks in advance!
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26 Feb 2005 — 10:51am
the software you're using has to implement these features. so far, only Adobe CS products (and InDesign 2.0) support automatic substitution of OT features.
If you're hoping to see automatic ligature substitution in Microsoft apps or in Quark, you'll have to wait until they release software that supports these things.
26 Feb 2005 — 11:45am
So there is no way to have OT features work automatically... Is there instead any workaround or trick to have the desired result displayed in any application that at least supports ttf?
Many thanks.
4 Mar 2005 — 1:40pm
On Windows the Uniscribe component (usp10.dll) handles the application of OpenType features - traditionally it's only been used for the so-called complex script languages. Automatic features for are supported by the latest version of Uniscribe, supplied with XP SP2, so in notepad and elsewhere fonts like Zapfino and Bickham Script have their default OTL features applied.
Office uses its own version of Uniscribe, and also bypasses Uniscribe for all but complex script languages due to the performance issues.
Not sure about the Mac but I think there's a similar situation there too.
10 Mar 2005 — 3:54pm
If you want them to be permanent and not optional, have you tried to put them in 'rlig'?
4 Mar 2005 — 1:15pm
Problems with custom ligature creation in FontLab
This is a thread started in the GENERAL area which I thought might get a few more useful eyeballs on it if it were here in the BUILD area.